Warren Spector now works for Disney

Warren Spector, father of System Shock, Thief and Deus Ex, now works for Disney Interactive Studios.

Warren Spector is a figurehead for serious gamers and I'm not ashamed to admit that he's a personal hero of mine. He's a man who works long and hard, putting incredible amounts of effort and time into his games which often blur genres and provide though provoking storylines and alternate story-paths. If you don't believe me then go play Deus Ex and talk to me then.

Oh, and he also now works for Disney.

Disney Interactive Studios, which has recently been trying to gain credibility among gamers despite the fact that there hasn't been a good Disney game since Alladdin, announced during E3 2007 that it had bought up Spector's design house, Junction Point Studios.

Spector apparently leapt at the chance to work for Disney and originally wanted to work as a cartoonist for Disney instead of going into game design - going so far as to write his master thesis on cartoons and to develop the pen and paper RPG, Toon.

The move to pull Spector into the Disney fold is undoubtedly part of Disney's attempts to gather credibility with hardcore gamers to help aid a push into interactive medium. It may actually work too, as long as they have enough sense to let Spector do his thing and don't plaster Mickey Mouse posters all over his next game.

As for his next game, Spector has been keeping very, very quiet the last year but rumours in the industry suggest he may be making a computer game adaptation of Toon or that he may be linked to the recently announced Deus Ex 3.

Are you annoyed that Spector has associated himself with a publisher like Disney, or are you willing to wait and see what the inventor of JC Denton can come up with next? Considering his history of working on games like System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief and Ultima (not to mention Wing Commander), we're going to fall on the latter side of the fence and may yet be surprised by how committed Disney are to making computer games a part of their arsenal.

Let us know how you feel about Disney's most recent purchase, drop your comments below or in the forums.